


Desideratum

by HawthorneUK



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-18
Updated: 2016-06-18
Packaged: 2018-07-15 21:20:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7238914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HawthorneUK/pseuds/HawthorneUK
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My Sith Inquisitor is horribly grumpy when she reaches Rishi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Desideratum

Lana, usually so calm and unflappable, was becoming more and more irritated as the days went by. 

Lana and Theron Shan had been hiding out on Rishi for months, working to uncover the plans of the Revanite cult to dominate both the Republic and the Empire. Her plan to bring Sheyal to Rishi, and to embed her in the minds of the other inhabitants as the leader of the Howling Tempest Gang, had worked perfectly - and she was glad on a personal level to see Sheyal again, and pleased to see Andronikos too. 

What she wasn’t prepared for, however, was Sheyal’s snappish behaviour whenever Theron was around. She had thought that the two of them got on well before - even flirting - but Sheyal seemed to do all she could to stay as far away from him as possible. When they had no choice but to interact, she would snap out two- or three-word responses. Theron was obviously baffled at first, but soon started responding in kind, and the negative mood would overshadow any conversation or planning that they all needed to work on. 

Andronikos was just as confused as Lana was - they spent an hour or so over a decent cup of caf on the second day of hostilities trying to work out what had caused the sudden change in attitude. He even asked Sheyal directly, and was rewarded with a vigorous denial that there was anything wrong, embedded in a veritable sea of expletives in at least five languages.

On the third day, Lana snapped.

They were gathered in the safe house, debriefing as dusk fell after Sheyal and Andronikos had effectively destroyed the local slaver’s business. After the third monosyllabic response through gritted teeth from Sheyal, Lana slammed both of her hands onto the table that they were sitting round, making them all jump.

“That’s it. I’ve had enough - way more than enough - from you two,” she snarled. “Get out, both of you. The tab at the cantina’s still open. Get in there, have a couple of drinks, and talk to each other. You’re jeopardising everything we’re trying to do here. Go - I don’t want to see either of you until you’ve worked out a way to be civil to one another, at the very least.”

Sheyal stood up, glaring at all of them, and stalked out of the room. Theron opened his mouth to protest, then snapped it shut again after one look from Lana. She crossed her arms, and looked pointedly at him. He shrugged on his jacket, turned on his heel, and followed Sheyal.

The cantina was half empty - it wouldn’t really start to fill up for another half hour or so - and Theron spotted Sheyal sitting in one of the corner booths, looking furious. He went up to the bar, ordered a couple of the least disgusting beers that they sold, and walked over to the booth, putting one of the beers in front of her. “So,” he said, sitting down and taking a swig of his beer, “Do you mind telling me what the fuck’s the matter. Is it something I’ve done? Something I haven’t done?”

“It’s nothing that you’ve done.”

“So why do you seem to want to either bite my head off or kill me?”

“You really want to know?”

“Yes.”

Sheyal sighed in resignation.

“Kriff. If you really want me to talk about this, go get me a large shot of something strong. Make that two shots - and probably at least one for you, too. You’re going to need it.”

Theron looked at her, opened his mouth as though he was about to say something, then closed it again. He went to the bar, and came back with a tray holding four shot glasses filled with a slightly blue liquid. Sheyal grabbed one, and downed it. Theron was momentarily amused by the way that her eyes suddenly went wide, and the slight cough that followed. “What the kark was that?” she wheezed. “That’s the local firewater - you said strong, not good.” “True.”

“So, tell me.”

“It’s nothing you’ve said or done. It’s you.”

“Um, OK, can you expand a bit on that?”

“You might want to start on that drink now. I like you - have done since you first started talking me out of that undersea base in Manaan. You’re intelligent, good looking, nice arse - shame about the whole republic thing, though.”

“Thanks, I think. But….”

“My subconscious and body seem to have decided that they need you - really need you. I’m having to concentrate so much on pushing the need, the desire, into the background when I’m near you that I can barely think about anything else. The way my body reacts whenever you’re near me is unbearable - just sitting this close to you is like foreplay. Really good foreplay.” Theron took a gulp from one of the remaining shots as Sheyal continued, “It’s exhausting - and you’re the one man that’s completely out of my reach, thanks to that whole republic thing again, and the fact that you would probably like to be able to work again once all of this is over. Fuck, I could even have force-persuaded a seduction - you might even have thought it was your own idea - but I’ve developed a really inconvenient case of ethics too - not sure who I can blame that on. So, as I said, it’s nothing you’ve done - it’s something I have to deal with. I’m not sure whether knowing this is going to make things any easier for you or not - but any suggestions for how I can deal with this are welcome.”

Sheyal picked up the second shot, and took a cautious sip. She noticed that Theron had started on his second shot too, having finished the first as she talked. She sat back against the booth seats, eyes closed, obviously trying to bring her breathing under control, while Theron tried to work out what to say.

“You can be a real kriffing idiot at times, you know.”

Sheyal’s eyes snapped open, and she glared at him. “What!”

“All this crap about being out of your reach. 1. I’ve been holed up in parts unknown with a powerful sith, deranged wookiee and half a droid for months - surely that’s pretty damning when it comes to returning to the Republic intelligence services. 2. The way we were flirting before Lana and I went into hiding - I was giving as good as I got, as I remember.”

Sheyal finished her drink. “What’s your point?”

Theron sighed. “My point is that I would have made a move on you months ago if I didn’t think you’d laugh and tell me to fuck off - you were so out of my reach. I’ll admit that you’ve been kriffing awful for the past few days, but I still want to do this….”

He reached out his hand and cradled the side of Sheyal’s face, watching her pupils expand at his touch. The first kiss was a gentle brushing of lips as Sheyal’s hand reached up to dig her fingers into the hair at the back of his head. Theron pulled back a little, and smiled at her. She took a deep breath, let it out, and pulled him back in for another kiss, moaning gently into his mouth as their tongues met and probed. Sheyal swing her legs over Theron’s and wriggled onto his lap, putting her at the same height as him. She let her head roll backwards, exposing her neck and throat to Theron’s eager mouth as his hand slipped inside the back of her top.

“Oy, you two. Cool it, or get a room somewhere.” The barman was leaning on their table, trying to look stern, but the effect was ruined by the way that the corner of his mouth kept quirking upwards. Theron blushed, suddenly realising that most of the patrons of the now full cantina had been enjoying the show; Sheyal was glad that her red skin would hide any reaction on her part. He stood and held out his hand to Sheyal, who took it with a smirk. They left the cantina to the sound of cheers and risque comments from the other drinkers, pausing for another deep kiss up against the doorway on the way out.

 

“Well, I haven’t heard any explosions yet - that’s probably a positive sign,” muttered Andronikos to Lana as the sat on the curved sofa in the safe house, each working on their datapads in the gloomy room. She glanced at him. “Probably.” A sudden crash from the entryway had Andronikos grabbing for his blaster and Lana was suddenly alert, reaching out through the force to assess the threat. She reached out and put her hand on his arm. “Relax,” she said in a quiet voice, smiling as she relaxed back onto the sofa. 

Shortly afterwards, Sheyal and Theron came staggering through the door to the living quarters, completely oblivious to anything apart from one another. Theron had one hand on Sheyal’s arse, the other working its way up under her top as they kissed, Sheyal was battling the fastenings on Theron’s jacket, and hissed in triumph as they finally gave way, pushing it off his shoulders and down to the floor; his hands quickly returned to their previous positions as they bounced off the walls towards Theron’s quarters while Sheyal started pulling his shirt out of his trousers.

Lana raised an eyebrow at Andronikos as she tried not to laugh; his shoulders were shaking. “So, does that count as ‘civil’, do you think?” she asked. “I’ll tell you in the morning! In the meantime, I think that’s our cue to visit the cantina ourselves for an hour - or maybe two.” “Do you think that’s really necessary?” Lana said. At that moment, a groan of “Stars. Yes. There. Harder.” came from the back of the safe house. This time Andronikos raised an eyebrow, and Lana simply nodded as she stood.


End file.
